Machine for treating earthy material with a binder.



M. A. POPKESS.

MACHINE FOR TREATING EARTHY MATERIAL WITH A BINDER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 8.1910.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

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6 SHEETSSHEET I.

M m Wu M. A. POPKESS.

MACHINE FOR TREATING EARTHY MATERIAL WITH A BINDER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 8, 1910.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

M. A. POPKESS. MACHINE FOR TREATING EARTHY MATERIAL WITH A BINDER. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 8. mo.

L5,9%8. PatentedNov. 21,1916.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

M. A. POPKESS.

MACHINE FOR TREATING EARTHY MATERIAL WITH A BINDER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 8, 19m.

1.,%@5,9%I I PatentedNov. 21, 1916.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

awuewtoz I I (f 3% @WM/Lh M. A. POPKESS.

MACHINE FOR TREATING EARTHY MATERIAL WITH A BINDER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 8, I910.

Patented Nov. 21, 1916.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

awvmtoz M. A. POP KESS.

MACHINE FOR TREATING EARTHY MATERIAL WITH A BINDER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 8, I910.

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I To all whom it may concern.-

UNITED STATES manner. A. rorxnss, or .msas cm, mssouarfl" MACHINE FOR TREATING EABTHYhIATEBIAL WITH A BINDER.

Patented m. 21,119

Be it known that I, Mrcnm A. POPKESS,

a' citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented new-and useful Improvements in Machines. for Treating Earthy Materiahwith a Binder, of which'the following is a specification. 1 a

My invention consists in v a machine adapted to treat earthy material, by which I I mean ordinary soil, clay Eor loam, soas to convert it into a substanceJadapted for use as a waterproof road sur ace.

Attem ts have heretofore been madeto mix a bituminous binder with the'surface material ofQroads, but without eat success.

The reason for this failure is t at-the mixture is incomplete and not uniform- Alit would be congealed, at least in part, by contact with the moist, cold earth before amalgamatingjherewith and no amount of subsequent working could produce the necessary'intimate union. j I

My invention consists in taking up the earth, breaking it up into separate particles by violent agitation while subjecting 'it to heat, and then incorporating it with the binder-either by spraying the latter into the earth while it is still in a violently agitated state, or, by thoroughly mixing it in while the earth is am hot.- In other words, the earthis subjected to the action of a comminuter,

which breaks it up into fine, dust-like particles, whilea current of hot air, or the products of combustion of afurnace, are forced through it. ,Preferably the'melted binder is then sprayedinto it before it is allowed to settle, or else the hot earth and hot binder are mixed. together byany suitable or well mown mi apparatus. (In some cases, the earthy material may be already so dr asnot. to require heating); In this way obtain afsubstance, which, when compacted by pressure, as by an ordinary road-roller,

is homogeneous, coherent, dense yet mane, able, absolutely dustless under friction, ab-.

' solutel' waterproof and practically inde' structi le, forming an ideal surface for Speoiflcation of Letters Patent. Application filed October a, mo. Serial No. 880,054.

roadways, railway-beds, sidewalks, dams,

W 5 lhave shown and illustrated one that my invention, broader aspects, is equally applicable to stationary machines, or machines which are moved from place to place, asoccaslon demands.

When the machine 1s a traveling one, I the treated material will, of course, be deposited directly on the surface while, when stationary, the material will be conveyed away l In y ble Way. i

I am aware that it is r 7 not broadly new' to construct a machine so that it will travel over'the roadway, treat the material and ,redeposit it, but the present machine is distinguished from such prior machines. in

several particulars",vone. of'which is the fact. a. that it 1s provided with meanswhich automat1cally gathers up the material from the ground, notwithstanding grades orirreguarities in the surface and then delivers it 111 uniform but regulable quantities'to that part of the machine which prepares it for impregnation with the binder. lhis means for automatically gathering up material from the surface of the ground as the ma chine advances, notwithstanding grades or irregularities, I believe to be entirely novel in machines of thiskind, and in this respect, I do not wish to be understood as limiting myself to the combination of such means wlth the specific machine which -is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, i

in which, I

Figure 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section; Fig. 3 is a plan; Fig. 4 1s a front elevation; Fig. 5 is arear elevation; Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of the rear end of a nwdified construction,

Fig. 7 is a plan view of the rear end" of the commuter in this modified construetion, and Fig. 8 is a detail sectional view o-f part of Fig. s,

The frame of the machine is indicated by the numeral 1, the same being carried by wheels 2 and '3 in front and rear, I'GSPGG-y tively. The front wheels 2 are journaledin a yoke 4, having a bearing 5 in the fraina steering-gear, comprising chains 6, gearing 7 and steering-wheel 8, serving to rotate said yoke and thereby guide the machine.

' At the front end of thefra'me islocated a substantially-vertical bucket-elevator- 10, the frame 11 of which,- composed offchannel-beams or other structural shapes,-

slidably mounted in guides 12 and1-3, which may also be channel-irons, of which the lower pair 12 issecured tothe rront end of v the frame and the upper pair 13 is supported by suitable braces running from the frame. The operative part of the elevator consists of the usual chains 14 carrying buckets, (in this case I have shown three parallel series of buckets) passing around sprocket-wheels 15 at the bottom of the elevator frame and around similar wheels 15 at the top of said frame, the upper wheels being vertically adjustable to take up slack by means of manually operable screws 16,

connected to move together by a sprocketchain 17, and said upper wheels 15 being driven by a chain by a motor 19, see Fig. 3.

The lower end of the elevator frame carries shoes 20, adapted to ride on the ground and a pair of diverging wings 21, secured to said frame and braced by a U-shaped member 22, the function of which will be further described later on.

The soil carried up by the elevator is delivered by it into a casing 26, mounted on the upper part of the frame and containing an apron conveyer 27, of any suitable construction, such as the well-known type consisting of a sectional sheet metal trough having partitions'29 and supported anddriven'by sprocket-wheels 28. As shown, the rear sprocket-wheel is driven by chains from the motor 19. Means are provided, such as the edge of the casing 26, for instance, see Fig. 2, for-scraping off any surplus material from the pockets of this conveyer, so that it will always deliver a uniform amount to the chute 31. This chute leads into the end of the large shell 33, which is rotatably supported by well-known means and is driven by gearing 34 by a motor 35. ()n the inside wall of the shell 33 are secured a number of shelves or cleats 36, the purpose of which is to'lift the material and drop it upon the rotary breaker, concentrically mounted on a shaft 39 within said shell and consisting,

in this instance, of a hollow drum 37 carry ing spirally arranged ribs 38. The shaft 39 is driven through gearing 40 by a motor 41 mounted on the rear end of the frame, and, as shown is hollow and contains a pipe'42, through which a circulation of water is maintained to cool said shaft, its front bearing 43, and the head of the drum 37, the

' water being supplied from a tank' 44. The

necessity for this arises from the fact that the front end of the shell 33 communicates with a furnace 45 shown as comprising burners 46 for liquid fuel, the products of combustion and heated air being drawn from said furnace,

around said shaft through said shell by a suction fan 53, also mounted on the rear'of the frame.

The broken up, dried and heated ma terial issues from the rear end of the shell, which is inclosed by a hood 47, and-falls into a casing 48, which contains a mixer conveyer here shown as a spiral conveyer 49 of usual type, driven through a chain 50 by the motor 41. The lower end of the casing 48 is provided with an opening 51, and the upper end is connected tothe tube 52 leading to the .fan 53. Leading into the hood 47 from any suitable source of pressure supply, such as a pump, not shown, is a pipe 55, through the apertures 56 of which a hot bituminous binder is sprayed onto the material as it falls from the end of the shell into the mixer and conveyer 49.

I preferably provide means for lifting, when not in use, and limiting the downward movement of the elevator, the same comprising a train of reduction gearing 60, operable by a hand-crank 61 (one on each side ofthe machine), a pawl 62 retaining said crank and gearing from turning backward. Chains 63, connect the gearing to the elevator frame.

Iii Figs. 6 and 7 is illustrated means for spraying the binder into the material while it is still in the shell 33, that is to say, before it has settled, instead of after it has fallen from the shell into the mixer, as described above. In this wa the binder and flying earth are brought into the most intimate contact. lhe shaft 39;, in this case, is hollow throughout its length, the rear end, however, being cut ofl from the front end, in which the water circulates. A pipe 65, connected to the source of binder under pressure, is carried into said shaft from its rear end to a point a short distance from the end of the drum 37, where it is connected to four branch pipes 65, extending through the wall of the-shaft at equidistant points. These branch pipes 65 terminate in elbows 66 from which pipes 67 are led horizontally onto the periphery of the drum. Each pipe 67 lies alongside of one of the spiral ribs 38, heretofore mentioned, and is secured thereto in any suitable way. I These pipes extend forwardly over the drum for a certain distance, which in the present instance is about 5 feet, and are closed at their ends. Each pipe is perforated near its end with a row of holes 69, spaced'equally apart, the row of holes in each pipe beginning at a different distance back from the end of the pipe; in other words, the holes are staggered. The effect of this is to cause sprays of binder in different planes, whereby it is insured that all the dust-like particles of earth passing therethrough will come into contact with the binder. In this form of the invention, the rear end of the shell 33 is inclosed by a hood 70, which is extended upwardly abovethe shell, the fan 53 being mounted adjacent to and communicating with said extension of the hood. The discharge side of the fan communicates with a conduit 72, which is led downwardly, as shown, to a point near the ground, an apron 73 being pivoted to the lower end of said conduit, to prevent scattering of any dust which may come through with the air. The lower end of the hood 72 is funnel-shaped and terminates in a spout 74:, in two oppo-' site walls of which are hinged doors 75 weighted, as at 76, on their outer ends, so that the opening will always be closed except to admit the treated earth to issue. This is, of course, to prevent air being drawn in through said spout. If desired, the mixer illustrated in Fig. 2 may be maintained, the mixed earth and binder passing therethrough before issuing from the machine.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. A machine of the class described, comprising in combination means for gathering up the surface material, a rotary cylinder into one end of which the material is fed by said means, a shaft carrying inclined blades axially mounted within said cylinder, means to rotate said shaft at a higher rotary speed than said cylinder, means to spray a liquid binder into the material while It is being thrown about by said blades, and means to deliver the mixed material from the other end of said cylinder.

2. A traveling machine for treating surface earthy material to render it suitable for paving, comprising in combination a rotary cylinder, a bucket elevator carried on the front of the machine'and arranged to gather up the material as the machine travels along and deliver it into said cylinder, means Within said cylinder to break the material up into dust, means to intimately mix it while in that condition with a hot liquid binder which congeals when cool, and means to deliver the mixed material upon the ground. v

3. A.machine for making a waterproof plastic paving substance from earthy material, comprising in combination a rotary Witnesses.

MICHAEL A. POPKESS. Witnesses:

RUDOLPH BnoH, EDGAR A. HARPER. 

